Star Wars Rebels New York Comic Con Panel Recap

After a great week of small Star Wars Rebels reveals such as the teaser, toy packaging, and propaganda art, today was the big event that they were all leading up to. The panel at the New York Comic Con, where a lot of cool new info about the series was revealed. Below is a recap of all the cool new info that was revealed about Star Wars Rebels, as well as quotes from Pablo Hidalgo from the panel:

-A video message from Greg Weisman was played, where he said he was “bummed we couldn’t be out there with you.” They’re “really in the thick of it.”

-Star Wars Rebels will take place 14 years after Revenge of the Sith.

-“When the Empire first formed, the stability was actually a welcome change from the constantly warring and declining Republic. One of the principals of the Empire is expansion, and they did that by pushing out into the Outer Rim territories that the Republic never really got into.”

-The planet Lothal, located in the outer rim will be a primary location in the show.

-“The Empire doesn’t have the resources to invade every planet they want to annex.” It becomes pretty apparent, though, that the Empire doesn’t have the best interests of Lothal in mind.”

-Stormtroopers will not be Clones in Rebels, but will be people who enlist in the Empire.

-George Lucas said Clones “showed too much individuality to be of use to the Empire.”

-Older Clones will serve as training sergeants to new recruits.

-The blasters Storm Troopers use will have the bump that was on the original Kenner action figures

-A new type of Imperial Walker was revealed, the AT-DP, designed by Joe Johnson

– A new type of pilot for the AT-DP was shown.

-An Imperial Troop transport was shown, based off of the old Kenner toy.

-TIE-Fighters will have a larger ball cockpit and smaller wings than that in the films. Based off Ralph McQuarrie’s original design.

-The new villain The Inquisitor was revealed.(You can see more info on him here)

-“If the Inquisitors are brought in, that means the Empire has reason to believe that Jedi are involved somehow. They are, but we are very cognizent of what happened with Order 66, and Luke’s importance as the last of the Jedi.”

-“George provided all these notes about what happened after the Clone Wars, and we’re designing the show with that in mind.”

-Someone asked if any characters from The Clone Wars will appear on Rebels, but Pablo Hidalgo couldn’t answer that.

-There will be a big focus on the Empire in the show alongside the heroes.

-The heroes ship is called the Ghost for a very specific reason.

-In a response to a question about if bounty hunters will be in Rebels, Pablo says “It’s not just black and white Rebels versus Empire.”

-“Our heroes will find out that when they are more successful, they’ll have to fight bigger bosses.”

-There will be deaths in the series, and the tone of the show will take a dark turn in the fourth episode.

-George Lucas is not involved with story ideas for Rebels, and the show is being developed at a faster pace than Clone Wars due to their experience working on that show.

Lots of great stuff was revealed about Rebels at this panel. Especially if you’re a huge fan of the Empire like myself! With a nice mix of new villains, vehicles, troopers, and classic vehicles and designs we know and love from the films, Star Wars Rebels is shaping up to not only be a great follow up to Clone Wars, but a great new chapter in the entire Star Wars saga. It’s gonna be a fun ride starting in 2014!